How an online platform matches job seekers with errands

GoGoTasker co-founder Cheng Nga-ying, who likes to be called Ying, has two important missions on hand.

One is scaling up the IT platform.

The service, which matches people looking for all types of helpers and those who can get the job done, is now only available on personal computers. This is not good enough.

Imagine you are a part-time housekeeper, photographer, piano teacher or fitness instructor. You won’t be sitting in front of a computer the whole day, waiting for enquiries or orders. You want to respond to interesting jobs on the go.

Ying hopes the app version will be ready in a couple of months.

The other thing is getting more “taskers” to sign up.

For instance, at the moment, there are lots of postings on the site seeking help with home cleaning, but there are few on the offer side.

GoGoTasker aims to be a matchmaker for a dozen categories of tasks, which have been selected after research into where Hongkongers would more likely use helpers. Those include Home, Delivery, Event & Photography, Computer & IT, among others.

The business idea came from Ying’s partner Kitty Cheung.

Kitty fell sick after returning from a long distance trip and could really use some soup. How nice it would be, she thought, if there is a platform where she can post her request and one of the neighbors could pick up the item and deliver it to her.

From massage firms to logistics companies, Ying is reaching out to different sectors to enlist more providers for the site.

She is going to give it a bigger push when the app is ready.

“By getting people to download the app, it will be a lot easier to explain to them how the platform works,” Ying says.

Initially modeled after US-based Task Rabbit, GoGoTasker is different in two ways.

The former quotes a rate and assigns whoever they think is best qualified for the job.

In the latter, jobs are awarded on a bidding basis by different providers. After there is a successful match, the rest is up to the help seekers and the taskers.

At the moment, users looking to hire someone to run any errands just need to key in the job description, the timing of the service sought, the location and the available budget.

A notification is sent to them if any tasker responds. Likewise, those offering the service will get a notification if they are chosen.

Like many similar platforms, users can rate the taskers from zero to five stars.

After collecting feedback from users, GoGoTasker is now working on a couple of additional functions. One is a chat box for more in-depth conversations between the two sides in private. The other is a related job list alert for the taskers.

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